A Few Good Men, Too Many Chemicals: Toxic Exposure of U.S. Marines

The government reported that MCAS El Toro had extensive toxic chemicals in the ground, the soil and the aquifer under the base. The Navy and EPA failed to report Dioxin as a contaminant of concern for El Toro. Dioxin is a toxic chemical that can cause cancers and Parkinson Disease. To its credit, the state of California identified Dioxin 2,3,7,8 TCDD as a contaminant of concern at El Toro. Dioxin was the contaminant in Agent Orange that was spread in Vietnam to reduce vegetation and improve a field of fire. Thousands of Vietnam veterans died from exposure to Dioxin. El Toro's landfills and wastewater sludge were contaminated with Dioxin, supporting that Marines and others who drank from well water consumed Dioxin and were exposed to inhalation exposure from fires made to reduce the volume in the landfills. I made a follow-up telephone call to a federal government scientist who was told El Toro's base wells were abandoned years ago. That was good enough for her. However, the truth is that she had no power to require El Toro to explain missing water distribution engineering drawings and at least one well opened in the contaminated aquifer. This individual was working for an agency that was just a 'rubber stamp.' She was employed by a federal agency sleepwalking through a process that everyone knew the outcome before the first step was taken. This was during the time that El Toro denied ownership for 16 years of a toxic Trichloroethylene (TCE) plume spreading off the base into Orange County (1985 to 2001). The fact that thousands of Marines consumed solvent contaminated well water and worked with TCE and benzene with extensive dermal and inhalation exposures without face masks for decades was never considered by the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry (ATSDR) or any other government agency. In this sense, no one represented the interests of Marines and their health effects of exposure to toxic solvents and other chemicals. Unlike surrounding communities, we were on the base 24/7. If this was Love Canal or a similar civilian EPA Superfund site, all who lived and worked in the contaminated site would be at some risk for exposure until eliminated by scientific evaluation.